South University offers a new approach to teaching

Thursday

May 11, 2006 at 1:00 AM

The Associated Press

If you ran a growing institution of higher education and wanted your academic reputation to rival the most prestigious in Academe, what would you do?

South University's plan is designed to raise the intellectual bar by promoting critical thinking. Officials there are taking a new approach and teaching students to think through problems so they will be prepared to come up with solutions in real life.

It is part of the university's Quality Enhancement Plan, which is required of every institution accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

"The way you really learn something is to think through it," said David Hawkins, the Senior Associate Dean of Pharmacy who oversaw the development of South University's Quality Enhancement Plan. "We don't want students who regurgitate information. When they get out on a job they'll be known for their ability to solve problems."

Officials believe teaching students to think critically will make them more intellectual and perhaps even boost South University up a rung or two in the status-conscious world of academics.

Students studying anesthesiology, for example, might be asked to imagine they're in an operating room. The imaginary patient is suffering a postpartum hemorrhage and their heart rate and blood pressure is on the rise. Students have to apply what they've learned in class to figure out what drugs and fluids to use and at what point they should use them.

"For any science program it is absolutely necessary to learn this way," said graduate student Rebecca Maki. "Science is changing every day and you have to give people the skills to be able to think and adapt, otherwise 10 years from now people are going to be obsolete."

As officials implement the plan over the next five years, students won't have to worry about running out of note paper, crashing laptops or catching a hand cramp while transcribing the words of a long-winded professor.

All South University instructors, online and on the campuses in Savannah; Columbia, S.C.; West Palm Beach, Fla.; Montgomery, Ala. and Tampa, Fla. are being trained in the new teaching methods.

By thinking critically, they believe their students will develop a deeper understanding of what's being taught and have the ability to recall and use what they learned in real-world situations.

Health Professions dean, A. William Paulsen, said his students get into a hospital operating room and can jump right in after treating two or three patients because they've done it all before in the school's mock operating room.

"Usually that comfort level doesn't come quickly. It takes months to accomplish that same thing with students taught in a traditional setting," he said.

Despite the differences between the traditional and critical-thinking teaching and learning styles, faculty and students are making a smooth transition, according to Joe Harm, vice president of academic affairs.

"I think professors as well as students are tired of lectures," he said.